Supply Units

[Currahee]

I did some tests to address Pegasus' questions. The answer (as usual with TOAW) is a bit more complicated than we may have expected, but the system basically seems to be working as intended.

I'll discuss supply units first ("depots" for short; some designers call them "bases") (these are the units with the supply icon, present only in games where the designers have included them); and will then discuss transport asset sharing (TAS) separately.

Preliminary observation: TAS works very differently from depots; TAS increases the force supply level, for that turn, as indicated in the turn briefing: ie, FSL 15 +1 (or whatever) TAS = FSL 16. The transport asset sharing increases force supply level for that turn, at every supply source; the FSL is then normally affected by roads, terrain, supply radius, adjacent cooperating HQ, unit not moved, etc. Whereas, depots within their supply radius do not work that way at all; instead, they increase the individual hex supply level, for OFF-RAIL and OFF-ROAD hexes only. IE, they partially cancel the adverse terrain effects.

For the test of depots, I used Two Weeks in Normandy, because the allies begin with a depot on Utah Beach; base turn for testing is turn 3, because allied shock bonus throws off allied supply in turn 1. Also, this scenario has a quick turn end (limited units), and no German air to throw off our calculations, so it's a good test bed. I'm looking only at the Contentin area.

I found:

1. Depot adjacent: as advertised in the rules, any unit adjacent to the depot receives a boost, compared to not being adjacent. The depot effect is the same as the cooperating HQ effect; ie, an adjacent depot acts just like an adjacent cooperating HQ. basically, a 1/3 increase in supply utilization, with the other 1/3 being "unit not moved", and the other 1/3 being "always available".

Value Sply 83 moves, tn 3 to tn 4, to 89, with no depot adjacent (but depot still within supply radius) (in this scenario, 10 hexes).
Sply 83 moves, tn 3 to tn 4, to 91, with depot adjacent.


2. Depot not adjacent, and not within suppply radius:Same unit as tested under 1., above, increases supply from 83 to 85; but it's not a utilization efficiency issue; the supply level for the off-road hexes has actually changed:
w/o depot: value= 4
w depot w/in radius: value= 11

in other hexes randomly checked, the difference is 7 (w/o depot) vs 11 (w depot w/in radius).

So % increase isn't always the same, didn't test enough to determine exact mechanics, but there's definitely an increase in hex supply level of off-road hexes, when depot is w/in radius. No increase, though, on road hexes; at least, where the road hexes are already fully supplied; for road hexes not fully supplied (because of distance from supply source), there may be an increase, I didn't check that. And note that the force supply level itself isn't increased, as it is by TAS. And outside the supply radius, there's no effect from the depot unit. So, pretty much as advertised in the rules.

3. Transport Asset Sharing (TAS): Here, used Holland- A Bridge Too Far as test bed, because the designer, Nygaard, announced in the scenario notes that trucks in base (depot) units are the primary supply influence in the game. I'd have to say, after the test, that their influence is minor. I tested (beginning turn 2, when allied units unfreeze) three ways: No depots moved at all; all depots moved a short distance; all depots moved as far as possible. Result: all three methods had exactly the same effect on TAS: in each case, force supply level was 20, +4 forTAS = 24.

So moving depot units won't hurt your TAS. I think in earlier versions it did, and the rules say it does, but in latest versions, it doesn't. Nor do all those truck have much influence at all. Nor do the depots themselves in this particular scenario, because in this scenario, they only have a supply radius of 2. Of course, the radius could be easily increased in the scenario editor.

[Currahee]

On 1-25 I wrote:

"No increase, though, on road hexes; at least, where the road hexes are already fully supplied; for road hexes not fully supplied (because of distance from supply source), there may be an increase, I didn't check that."

I overcame my inertia and tested some not-fully-supplied road hexes, and discovered that there is indeed a boost from a supply depot within the supply radius; again in Holland- A Bridge Too Far, on a road hex that's not fully supplied (because far from a rail line or supply source), I see an increase from 4 to 10; and elsewhere, and increase from 10 to 19. So it definitely pays to keep these supply (depot) units within supply radius of critical areas, and resupply staging areas.